The Main Thing: What Really Matters According to Jesus
(This is part of our ongoing series in Matthew.)
Politics and theology—two topics that easily drive people apart. Add money to the mix, and you've covered everything you're told never to bring up in polite conversation. Yet these very issues dominate our conversations, consume our thoughts, and increasingly define who we are.
Often, politics and theology become wrapped up in a toxic combination. Think of the Crusades, led by the Pope to conquer lands where Muslims lived—all under the symbol of the cross. Or consider how in communist states, religion would be banned (though this doesn't make anyone less religious; it just makes people religious about different things).
Politics should be about ensuring all people are flourishing. But it easily becomes divisive, where the powerful use their power for themselves. Theology should be about learning more about God so we can worship Him. But it can easily devolve into dividing people: who's in, who's out, who "really gets it."
Let's not forget: political and religious leaders conspired together to murder Jesus.
The Fear Beneath the Surface
In our cultural moment, there's considerable fear surrounding these areas. We seem to keep digging holes, over and over, history doomed to repeat itself. Is our hope in a prime minister? In a theological purity regime that eventually excludes everyone?
These are holes we've spent generations digging. Only Jesus gives us the way out. And the way out is Him—not a political programme, not a theological system, but a person. What Jesus does is lead us out of this mess and free us to focus on the main thing.
In Matthew 22:15-46, religious leaders try to trip up Jesus with questions about politics and theology. What Jesus does is dismantle their nitpicking whilst simultaneously showing them something better. Through this exchange, He gives us the way out of our self-dug holes and draws us to a life that genuinely matters.
Politics: A False Main Thing
The Trap They Set
The people bringing the first question represent an unlikely alliance: Pharisees and Herodians—two groups who would never normally work together. Pharisees were anti-imperial tax, whilst Herodians supported Herod and would be pro-imperial tax. But the enemy of my enemy is my friend. They're defined by what they're against rather than what they're for.
Their question: "Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar?"
The trap is clever: If Jesus says yes, He alienates the Pharisees and the public. If He says no, He's guilty of treason. They think they've found a gotcha moment—an either/or situation where Jesus must pick a side.
Jesus Refuses the Box
Jesus will not be reduced to anyone's political agenda. To anyone who tries to force Jesus into something for their own ends, He says: "Hypocrite!"
Jesus sees beyond the outward appearance, knows their "evil intent," and goes straight to their hearts: "You hypocrites! Give me the coin."
The coin tells the entire story. It reads: "Caesar Augustus Tiberius, son of the Divine Augustus"—claiming to be the Son of God. The reverse reads "Highest Priest"—the one who mediates between god and man.
Both claims are offensive to anyone who knows God. Why hang on to it? Give this piddling, worthless thing to its owner. And for God—the real Divine—give to Him what He should have.
What This Means for Us
Our political ideas can be important. We can be passionate about them and talk openly about what we believe. But never can someone who follows Jesus—the actual Son of God—spend their lives chasing after this coin.
Jesus isn't anti-politics. It's that He's the only God, and therefore an atheist to all other gods.
Nobody would claim the Prime Minister is divine. But when we hang our hopes on them, don't we treat them as if they were? This should confront both our hopes and our fears. If we can't hang our hopes on politicians, we ought not to base our fears on them either. They're simply not that important!
Rome, that once all-powerful empire, is now a tourist attraction. And God's Kingdom? It has grown and will continue to do so.
So what do we give to God? Everything! God is actually God, and Jesus is actually the One who brings us into relationship with Him. Our hopes and fears—we bring them to Jesus.
The response? Verse 22 tells us they were "amazed"—impressed and disturbed, full of wonder. And they leave!
Theology: A False Main Thing
The Absurd Scenario
Next: theology! The Sadducees don't believe in the resurrection, so they construct an absurd hypothetical to mock it. They reference a law where a brother marries his deceased brother's childless widow, then create a scenario where seven brothers consecutively marry the same woman. Whose wife will she be in the resurrection?
If this sounds ridiculous, it's supposed to. The Sadducees are mocking the idea of life after death.
Jesus Sets the Agenda
Jesus' answer: you're missing the point! He doesn't engage with their absurd question. He addresses two things: what you believe and how you believe it.
What You Believe: They don't know the Scriptures. They assume the afterlife is identical to this life. But it's something completely different.
How You Believe: They don't believe God has the power to transform people. Sexual relationships after resurrection aren't even relevant! Sexuality is part of creation's goodness, but resurrection life transcends this. In the new heavens and earth, there's no need for a sign pointing to the destination—we're there!
Holding Together Word and Power
You might be tempted to separate knowing theology from experiencing God's power. But His Word and His power aren't separate—they're deeply connected.
You might lean toward "it's all about God's power" and neglect knowing Scripture. Or lean toward "right theology is everything" and neglect expecting God to work. Jesus cares about both what we believe and how we believe it.
The resurrection is only far-fetched if God isn't powerful. But if God is who He says He is, it's far-fetched not to believe.
The endpoint of theology isn't separating people into those who "get it" and those who don't. The endpoint is God Himself—knowing more of Him.
What Is the Main Thing?
The Greatest Commandment
The Pharisees regroup and bring their star striker: a lawyer. The Old Testament contains 613 commandments—which one is greatest?
Jesus delivers an immensely important message:
Love God with everything (the first commandment)
And He gives a bonus: the second is like it. To love God with everything, you must love others as you love yourself.
All the other laws—over 600 of them—flow downstream from this. There is nothing more radical in our world than what Jesus has just said.
These two commands are unified. You can't love God by yourself—it requires others. To love God whilst not loving others is to not love God. And the only way we can love others as they deserve is through God's power.
What Loving God Looks Like
To love God "with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" means loving God with everything. God gets everything!
God tells us what loving Him means through three aspects. They define how we understand ourselves as a church in Manchester: we are a gospel-formed family on mission.
Gospel Formed: Following God's "Way of Righteousness"
We follow Jesus' way, not our own. What He says about our wallets, our diaries, and our beds matters. We embody gentleness, compassion, love, kindness, patience. It's demonstrated in our words and actions. Understanding what it means to be gospel formed transforms every area of life.
Family: Active Participation in Discipleship
In John 21, when Jesus asks Peter, "Do you love me?" Peter responds, "Of course!" And Jesus answers: "Feed my sheep." A spiritually mature person feeds themselves and others. Who are you actively helping along in their walk with Jesus?
On Mission: Loving Those Not Yet in God's Family
The family we're part of doesn't exist just for ourselves—it's ever-growing. Jesus' prayer in John 17: "That they may all be one...so that the world may believe."
The goal? "So that the world may believe."
To love God requires both an inward posture and an outward posture—towards those in the church and those who aren't yet part of it. A gospel-formed family on mission. This is what being part of God's family genuinely looks like.
Making the Main Thing the Main Thing
This is what matters most! Those things you worry about at night—do they relate to this? The things you hope for—how much relates to this? Or are we focused on small, insignificant things?
This is why church membership matters. It's a commitment to making the main thing the main thing, keeping the main thing the main thing, helping others see the main thing. We are a community working together for the main thing.
Jesus Questions Us
The Tables Turn
Now Jesus puts a question to us: How can David call his own son "Lord"?
Jesus asks: Who do you think I am? Am I the main thing in your life?
Unlike other religious leaders, Jesus doesn't say, "Don't follow me, I'm just a messenger." He says clearly: You must follow me.
The people around Jesus should know the Bible, but they don't know the One whom it's all about. The problem: they don't know the Scriptures. If they did, they'd know Him.
Knowing Scripture with Everything
If we don't know Scripture, we won't know Jesus. To "know" is more than intellectual, but not less. We love God with everything, and we read His Word with everything.
We can be tempted to be anti-intellectual and think Scripture doesn't matter. Jesus says: "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures."
We can also think growing as a disciple is only intellectual. Jesus says: "You are in error because you do not know the power of God."
For those wanting to grow in how to read the Bible with both head and heart, this is crucial.
The Question That Demands an Answer
Jesus answers all their questions; they can't answer His. What will we say to His question? What am I to you?
Here's the one who doesn't fit into a political box because He transcends politics. He doesn't get hung up on theological smokescreens because He's the author of both theology and science.
With parts of us that easily respond to Jesus along with parts that resist, what do we do? We love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind. We bring it all to Him.
If we do that, we will love others as ourselves. We'll be motivated from an overflow of love, and because we know it's right whether we feel it or not.
What do you think about the Messiah? Is He the main thing? Can you imagine the benefit of having Jesus as your leader in life?
The Cross: Where Everything Comes Together
Not Who They Expected
Jesus wasn't who the fundamentalists thought He'd be. Nor what the liberals expected. Nor what the nationalists wanted.
All these groups thought He'd crush their enemies with might. Instead, He comes in humility, engaging us in conversation.
Others thought He'd trample their enemies. Instead, He dies for His enemies.
Thank God He didn't come to destroy those who opposed Him—because that would mean us. We were His enemies! Instead, Jesus uses His infinite power to win over those who hate Him. Not in a flourishing show of power, but in gruesome surrender and death.
If that's how Jesus saved us, that's how we live following Him.
What Jesus Offers
Because we couldn't make Jesus the main thing by ourselves, because we're obsessed with everything that is "not Jesus," we were running after death.
To save us from the death we deserve, He died. In our place. The Messiah—the King, the Lord over all—gets placed under it all.
All our sins, hypocrisy, wandering, placed on Jesus. When He died, He took all of that with Him. If you follow Him, He's taken all of that from you. All of that stays dead. Only Jesus rose again!
In its place, where our cold hearts used to be, is a new one. One that can love God with everything. One that can love others with supernatural generosity.
At our church in Manchester, we regularly gather around the table Jesus has laid for us—a tangible reminder that He is the main thing, that He gives us life itself.
Making Jesus the Main Thing
The invitation stands: Will we make Jesus the main thing? Will we stop being distracted by political agendas and theological arguments that, whilst important, don't deserve the central position?
Give Caesar his coin. Let theological debates find their proper place. But give God everything—your hopes, fears, time, resources, relationships, your very self.
This is what it means to be part of Redeemer in Manchester. We take Jesus seriously—a community committed to making the main thing the main thing, who help each other stay focused on what truly matters.
The question Jesus asks remains: Who do you think I am? Am I the main thing in your life?
How you answer—not with words but with your life—makes all the difference.